FanSided Turns 15! Memories From Canadiens In 2007
The Canadiens were fresh off a 90 point season, good for 4th in the Northeast Division in Guy Carbonneau’s debut as an NHL Head Coach, but incredibly, not good enough to make the playoffs. The Toronto Maple Leafs also missed the playoffs with 91 points. So who were those two elusive teams that made it to the playoffs? The Ottawa Senators with 105 points and the Buffalo Sabres winning the division with 113 points.
Seems like ages ago. This was the year the Senators made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals but ultimately fell to the Anaheim Ducks in 5 games.
The Canadiens walked into Columbus that summer for the NHL Draft with the 12th and 22nd overall pick. After seeing Patrick Kane go first overall and future Canadiens Karl Alzner go 5th overall, General Manager Bob Gainey walked to the podium and selected defenceman Ryan McDonough. Then came the 22nd pick and they made their selection in future captain Max Pacioretty.
The party didn’t stop there. In the second round, 43rd overall, the Canadiens picked P.K. Subban out of the OHL.
The rest of the draft was a wash for the Canadiens with only Yannick Weber, picked in the 3rd round, to see any NHL ice time.
Some notable late round misses by everyone on the league included Evgenii Dadonov, picked in the 3rd round by the Florida Panthers. Alec Martinez was picked in the 4th round by the Los Angeles Kings. Jamie Benn fell to the 5th round and picked by the Dallas Stars as was Jake Muzzin originally drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Stanley Cup legend Patrick Maroon was a 6th round pick that year by the Philadelphia Flyers, so was Carl Hagelin who was picked by the New York Rangers. Also 6th round picks that year were Nick Bonino, picked up by the San Jose Sharks and our very own Paul Byron was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres.
Carl Gunnarsson with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Justin Braun with the San Jose Sharks were selected in the 7th round.
In Montreal, little did fans know that the selections of McDonough, Pacioretty and Subban would shape the future of the team in unimaginable ways.
When free agency opened up the Canadiens were very aggressive in pursuing forward Daniel Briere. Despite a better off from the Canadiens, Briere ultimately chose to sign with the Philadelphia Flyers on an 8 year $52 million deal.
Day 2 of free agency saw the Canadiens sign former 1992 1st overall pick, defenceman Roman Hamrlik to a 4 year $22 million contract. The Canadiens also signed veteran centerman Bryan Smolinski on a 1 year $2 million deal.
Other free agent additions included Tom Kostopoulos, Jamie Rivers and the return of Patrice Brisebois.
The Canadiens lost a couple of players in free agency. Much to his wife’s chagrin, Sheldon Souray signed a deal with the Edmonton Oilers. Radek Bonk also packed his bags from Montreal to Nashville, joining the Predators. Goaltender David Aebischer also left for Phoenix, while Mike Johnson bolted for St. Louis.
On the trade front, the Canadiens traded their 7th round pick to the New York Rangers for the rights to Ryan Russell. Sergei Samsonov was shipped to Chicago in return for Jassen Cullimore and Tony Salmelainen. Goaltender Michael Leighton was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes in return for a 7th round pick to round up the summer activities.
Aside from the addition of Hamrlik, the media were adamant that this was a lackluster summer for the bleu-blanc-rouge.
Guy Carbonneau was back for a second year at the helm of the Canadiens and vowed to offer an ultra offensive spectacle. The team did just that finishing first in the league in goals for with 262. Alex Kovalev contributed to 35 of those goals, leading the team in virtually every offensive category, while Tomas Plekanec (29), Christopher Higgins (27), and Andrei Kostitsyn (26) were the main firepower for the Canadiens that season.
A 20 year old rookie named Carey Price stole the goaltending job from Cristobal Huet, who was ultimately traded to the Washington Capitals for a 2nd round pick. Price would finish the year with a 40-24-12 record with a 2.56 GAA and a .920 save percentage. His backup that year ended up being sophomore 22 year old Jaroslav Halak.
The Canadiens powered their way through the league and finished the year with 104 points to win the division. They finished 3rd in the league in points behind the Detroit Red Wings (115) and San Jose Sharks (108).
The season also saw Alexander Ovechkin have the best season of his career as he scored 65 goals along with 47 assists for 112 points. He would win the Hart Trophy as the league MVP as well as his first of 9 Maurice “Rocket” Richard trophies.
Martin Brodeur would also win his 4th and final Vezina trophy, marking it the 3rd year in a row he would win the illustrious goaltending award.
The red hot Canadiens were ready to take on their arch rivals the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs. The Canadiens took a commanding 3-1 lead after 4 games and were set to go the next round. However, things got complicated.
The Bruins’ offense were taken lightly as they had one of the worst offense in the league finishing 23rd in goals for. Game 5 saw an offensive onslaught that was expected by no one as the Bruins gave the Canadiens a 5-1 lashing to force a Game 6. All of a sudden, the Habs were nervous and dropped Game 6 by a score of 5-4 to force a Game 7 in Montreal.
This time however, the Canadiens used all of their weapons at their disposal, including a deafening Montreal crowd, and finally disposed of the Bruins in 7 games by the score of 5-0.
Entering round 2, fans were excited as they saw the young Kostitsyn brothers and Alex Kovalev led the charge offensively. At the blue line, Patrice Brisebois was showing shades of 1993 as he was a leader and quarterback the entire series.
Things were quite different in round 2.
The Philadelphia Flyers came into town and faced a visibly shaky and nervous Carey Price. The Canadiens however didn’t quit in Game 1 as they were down 3-2 with 29 seconds left in the 3rd period, none other than “The Artist” Alex Kovalev scored to tie the game, sending the 21 273 fans in attendance in a frenzy. Then 48 seconds into overtime, the roof blew open when Tom Kostopoulos scored the game winner putting the Habs ahead 1-0.
That was it. The Flyers would regroup and completely dominate the rest of the series and disposed of the Canadiens in 5 games. Neither Carey Price or Jaroslav Halak who saw some ice time were able to solve the Flyers.
The Detroit Red Wings would end up beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in the finals and lift the Stanley Cup.
The Canadiens then entered a confusing period during Bob Gainey’s tenure as General Manager. The following season, Guy Carbonneau was inexplicably fired despite holding a 35-24-7 record, something that Carbonneau still can’t explain to this day. Gainey himself would step behind the bench for the final 16 games of the season finishing with a 6-6-4 record. This would also mark the final season of Saku Koivu with the Canadiens.
Then came the infamous Scott Gomez trade. Then the hiring of Jacques Martin, a notoriously extremely defensive-minded coach, despite adding offensive-first players on the ice.
We got the Spring of Halak in 2009 but that was it for that period of time.
The 2007-2008 season could have been a pivotal point in Habs history and even then everyone knew we had a special team on the ice. The team had a fiery coach with an old school meets new school mentality. The team oozed charisma on and off the ice. However, it seems that ownership and Bob Gainey himself wasn’t a fan of “flashiness” and ultimately decided to tone things down and make changes.
Had the Gomez trade not gone down and Carbonneau was left alone to coach his team, maybe, just maybe, the Canadiens would have won a cup during that period of time.
That of course, is all a matter of debate and personal opinion.
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